A time for giving St. Joseph's HOPE club delivers food to needy families

November 26, 2009|KIRBY SPROULS Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND Neat rows of boxes filled with food and other essentials covered the Alumni Gym floor: Nine rows, 30 boxes per row. St. Joseph's High School's HOPE club had been working for weeks on the Thanksgiving project, which culminated Monday afternoon when students personally delivered the 270 boxes to families in need. Rylee Magee, a senior who's been doing this for four years, had two boxes to deliver. At one home, she and Elizabeth Everett were greeted by an older couple who didn't speak much English. But their gratitude was obvious. "They each had a big smile and just kept saying 'thank you' and 'gracias,'" Magee said. The other home where they went to deliver was empty, a "for rent" sign posted outside. So the box was forwarded to St. Vincent de Paul Society, which will see that it gets to the right family. (St. Vinnie's supplied the needy families' names to the school.) Magee said that of the 270 families receiving the food boxes, just 15 or 20 were not home waiting for them. The boxes contained a frozen turkey, canned food, dry cereal, paper towels and other items. Everything was purchased by St. Joseph's students, families, faculty and staff, pointed out Susan Lightcap, sponsor of HOPE (Helping Other People Endure). In all, 604 St. Joseph's families donated an average of $47. In addition to the food boxes, HOPE will provide $50 gift certificates with remaining funds. This is the 19th year that HOPE has sponsored the Thanksgiving food drive, and Lightcap said the tradition is getting stronger each year. "We are very fortunate that our students are geared to service," she said. "We had 60 students volunteer to unload the truck Friday night. Then another 50 kids came out Sunday for a Mass and to set up the boxes on the gym floor. ... I'm always humbled by what they accomplish." Diane Fox, a former St. Joseph's teacher, got the project started back in the 1980s before it became a HOPE project. She no longer teaches at St. Joseph's but nonetheless was on hand Monday to help with the project. "She deserves credit for this," Lightcap said of Fox. For Paul Champion, a junior who has worked on the project three years, the reward comes at the very end of the project. "Seeing the faces of those who come out and say 'thank you' makes it worth it," he said.